Opinion
Letters

'Crazy wisdom' indeed

I'm intrigued by the headline on Rick Gamble's Cross Current column. I'm even more intrigued by the reference to smiling.

You see William James and James Hillman offer quite another view: "To build character, do something for no other reason than its difficulty. Difficulty uses the face; it furrows the brow, tenses the eyes, purses the lips. Focus, concentration, effort."

In James's times, family photos and portraits were gravely serious. "Wipe that smile off your face" was meant not only for soldiers. Then Kodak came along and smiling became de rigueur. The face wants to smile. Frowning and scowling take more muscle. Our culture's actual face has been easing slowly into a copy of its smiling photograph. If deficit attention and learning disability are increasing, let's look to the little yellow "happy face" as the contributing cause. The attention needed for learning hardly starts with the imperative: "Have a nice day!"

I attribute the ideas in the above paragraph to Hillman's 1997 book, The Soul's Code: In Search Of Character And Calling, although Google couldn't pinpoint it. It sat dormant in my collection of "crazy wisdom" until the phrase "seeing a smile" prompted me to look it up.

A different perspective indeed!

Brian Bosnell

Brantford

Proud to be deplorable

Re: Trump state of the union claims out of this world (Feb. 1).

I'm a proud to be a "deplorable." I found Andrew Cohen's column to be sarcastic and misinformed. Seventy-five per cent of Americans polled were happy with the speech.

Cohen is obviously a disgruntled, out-of-touch, left-wing professor.

Jim Sandusky

Dorchester, Ont.

Words matter

On the Quebec mosque murder anniversary, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called on Canadians to condemn acts of racism and to take a stand against Islamophobia and discrimination in all its forms.

Words indeed matter. "Islamophobia," unlike "anti-Muslim bigotry," is a word that was coined to beat down critics of Islam, and is the term used to describe an irrational fear of Islam or Muslims, especially as a political force. Often, however, the term Islamophobia is used as a snarl word to dismiss valid criticisms, or simple concerns, about Islamic doctrines and ideology.

By squelching open and free discussion about Islamic doctrines, especially by reformist Muslims, the PM's continued parroting of the term Islamophobia will ensure that mutual understanding between Muslims and non-Muslims will never emerge. Criticism is the trigger to enabling real change in Muslim minds.